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Columbia Theatre 

Thursday Evening, at 8 o'clock 

Septe mber 8th, 1904 

MUSIC-MARINE BAND 
TICKETS ON SALE AT THEATRE 




OUR VOTE 

Citi^en^^* IndinJiducil and 
Collective ^e^^pon^^ibiltty 

Concluding tafith a SKetch of 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

The Master Mind .... 
The Master Character 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
T\VDOoples Received 
AUG 24 1904 
. Copyriffht Entry 

CLASS ^ XXo- No. 

'i t S 6 H 

COPY B 



E7S8 



COPYRIGHTED 1904 

GEORGE W. DREW 
WASHINGTON, D C. 



OUR VOTE. 



To MY Fellow Countrymen : 

What is our duty as citizens, individually and collectively, 
to oiir great country ? A country for its success in securing 
to its individual citizen, hap})iness, personal liberty, freedom 
of thought and the protection of property rights unparalleled 
in the annals of human affairs. Why does it surpass all 
previous formations of governments? The reason is to be 
found in an examination of its dual formation, the Federal 
and State government of its citizens under its wisely con- 
structed and immortal Federal constitution, adopted in con- 
vention assembled, by the representatives of the people, 
after much discussion and deliberation, based upon the great 
principles advocated by our famous forefathers, Alexander 
Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, and the adoption of these 
principles secured to us for all times our great country, 
founded by our immortal Washington, upheld in foreign 
countries by our able diplomat, Benjamin Franklin, saved 
by our inspired Lincoln and protected by our persuasive 
McKinley, and to-day guided by our sincere and brave 
Roosevelt; a dashing chariot of fire, a flash of lightning 
from the clouds that purifies the atmosphere. A man of 
iron nerve and fearless courage, standing by principle, 
always, in every instance and every act, and fearlessly and 
with the voice and manner of a true statesman, that he is, 
administering the laws of our country for the benefit and 
welfare of the people, as he conceives the duty of his great 
office the Chief Executive of our great Republic. 

Our manifold blessings, secured by our laws based on the 
great principles of our constitution, though, will only be pre- 
served and continued by the wisdom of the people in the 
proper use of the ballot — tlie righteous disposition of the 
vote by the voter — the individual citizen and collectively 
in selecting and electing wise representatives, to prepare, 
make, alter and execute the laws. Thus properly viewed 
we can but conclude that to be a true and patriotic American, 

3 



we must feel our great individual responsibility, and for our- 
selves and posterity wisely do our individual duty to our 
country and righteously use our vote. 

No man living in this country entitled legally to vote, 
has a moral right to refrain from casting that vote. If he 
does not, he fails in doing his solemn duty to his country, 
to his fellow citizen, and to his God. No human being has 
a legal or moral right to the blessings of law, be it that of 
God or man, unless he complies with that law. The failure 
and downfall of all forms of governments, like the sin and 
corruption of individuals, has been the attempted adminis- 
tration of unwise laws and the lack of the enforcement of 
good ones. Untold millions of human beings have been 
sacrificed owing to bad laws, and millions have been willing 
to give their lives to protect and preserve good ones. 

Our Federal Constitution, paramount over every State 
constitution, the basis of our laws throughout our country 
and the wise administration of them, has given to us mani- 
fold blessings during the six score and eight years of our 
country's history undreamed of in the records of human 
governments. Never let us forget, however, that these laws 
emanated from the people, through representatives elected 
by their votes, and that the people can only preserve and 
protect that Constitution, and always be secure in the use of 
the vote, by the proper use of the ballot, in electing proper 
men to the legislative, judicial and executive branches of 
our country. The voice of the people is made effective 
only through their votes. The votes of the people are the 
approval or disapproval of the Federal or State branch of 
the administration of their laws, delegated by the people to 
their representatives, respectively, under our dual S3^stem. 

It is the duty, both legal and moral, of each and every 
true American to cast his vote and to always acquaint 
themselves, by every means in their power, with the 
fitness of the individual for whom he votes, and it is 
the duty of every citizen to his country to know for what 
he votes, equally also the duty of their trustees to whom 
they delegate their rights with their power. This is the 
means — the only means — by which the people can exert 



their rightful power in selecting and electing from their 
number the proper individual to administer, properly alter 
and preserve the wise principles of their laws and continue 
to enjoy the fruits thereof, and make our country progress- 
ive among the nations of the earth and set the wise exam- 
ple to follow, to their children, the rising generation of our 
country, the coming voters. 

Ceaseless activity is the law of the universe and we must 
degenerate or progress, and to enjoy the benefit and mani- 
fold blessings of the law we must keep in harmony with 
the inevitable motion of the law. 

Nature is ever just and fair and we must always adjust 
our laws accordingly, and untold blessings will follow. 

The proper study of the history of the past events of gov- 
ernments will increase our love of wise laws and make us 
mindful of unwise laws, and should ever make us feel our 
individual responsibility as citizens, from whom the laws 
of our country collectively emanate — the people— father, son, 
brother and nephew, the voters of our country, the protectors 
of mother and wife, daughter and sweetheart. Our vote 
means all this. Do we realize our great responsibility as 
citizens in the use of our vote ? 

Our vote means the preservation or eventual destruction 
of all that is near and dear to us — our homes, our country, 
our character. Shall we, the people, properly discharge our 
duty ? I ask this greatest of questions to all citizens of our 
country, in the name of our immortal declaration to the 
nations of the world made in 1776, "Our Declaration of 
Independence," the beginning of peace on earth, good will 
to men. Yes, men ! The Gods and Goddesses of this 
planet — if they will to be — through the power of God made 
manifest through them, by the grace of God, America ! 
Americans!!! Our vote ! Our power ! The people — the 
law of our country ! Shall it continue? Shall it progress, 
now and forever, for ourselves and posterity ? — the promised 
land, the beginning of the millennium. We, the people, we 
can speak. I ask, will our voice be heard over this broad 
land of ours in no mistaken sound and protect our Liberty ? 
Liberty ! Liberty ! ! Liberty ! ! ! Oh ! how sweet ; oh ! 



how sweet, the guaranty of our country. Our vote, our 
power, our Libert}'. Awake! awake! the people must ever 
be to protect the Liberty of our country. 

The power of the great Jehovah is our power, if we will 
it to be, and through the grace of God use His power, our 
power — the vote — the power of the people, the protector 
of our liberty. May the grace of God ever be with us in 
our use of this great blessing — our heritage — our vote. 
M ly the good use we make of our vote be an ever-living 
evidence of our gratitude to our forefathers for its heritage 
and live as an example to posterity to forever protect it and 
receive and enjoy its blessings. Our country — our republic 
— our great union of states — protected and guided among 
the nations of the earth by her sons, through the Federal 
branch of our unparalleled system of government, admin- 
istered by chosen officers through the votes of the people, 
the foundation of the power of our government. 

Our towns, counties, cities and states making and enjoy- 
ing their own domestic laws — the liberty of the people, 
under the State constitutions respectively, made, guided and 
protected under the Constitution of the United States, our 
great country, our republic. The gem of the ages among 
the nations of the past and a living example for the guid- 
ance of the people of the earth, now and forever, if pro- 
tected by the people, through the use of their power, their 
votes. Let the people of no country despair ; all power of 
governments belong to the people, and this divine given idea 
is steadily growing throughout the civilized population of 
the earth, and will eventually work its destined end, plac- 
ing the right to govern where it belongs, in the hands of 
the people, and through their votes in their chosen 
representatives. 

In this enlightened age of the discovering of the laws of 
nature, the application of which adding so many blessings 
to the comforts and conveniences of human life, the means 
now of lighting, communication throughout the civilized 
world, and the various methods of rapid transportation of 
the people and the goods of different climes has made and 



is further tending to make one large community of the 
whole human family, and this, our glorious republic, with 
its great power in the hands of the people, controlling the 
country through their votes, is the hope and inspiration 
of the civilized world, and most assuredly, in the distant 
future, will place the power of all governments throughout 
the civilized world, where it should and of right ought to 
be, — in the hands of the people, — the governed, through 
their chosen representatives. 

Our system of government, of the people, delegated by 
the people, and for the equal rights, under the law for each 
and every citizen, in the interest of the whole people, has 
long ceased to be an experiment among the nations of the 
world, but will never cease to need the wisdom and pro- 
tection of the people for the wise administration of the laws 
of our country. 

That the people may ever increase in wisdom and un- 
derstanding, to enable us to protect our laws, we must in- 
sist upon the proper education and careful training of every 
succeeding generation of our country in everything that 
tends to produce good, worthy, law-abiding citizens of all 
communities throughout our system of government. We must 
insist upon a just enforcement of our laws, that our humblest 
citizen may enjoy equal protection of the laws of his country 
and insist through the whole power of our country that his 
lawful rights may be respected throughout the nations of 
the whole world. This great and mighty responsibility is 
that of each and every citizen of our great union of States 
and through their votes, collectively, their great power, the 
happiness and prosperity and welfare of our country de- 
pends, and just so far as they fail in doing their duty with 
their vote, the citizen contributes to the failure to protect 
our liberty. 

It is a living fact that our Republic is unexampled in 
the histor}^ of the human race, but let us ever remember 
that it cost our fathers and forefathers many an anxious 
moment and the sacrifice of many brave and valuable lives 
and many a broken heart of mother and father, brother and 



8 

sister, wife and sweetheart, to demonstrate and defend be- 
fore the world the living words of truth set forth in our 
Declaration of Independence, announced in 1776, and the 
words of truth in this great instrument rang with a sweet 
voice throughout the civilized nations of tiie earth, with the 
brilliancy of a flash of lightning from the clouds, and filled 
the hearts of the people of the earth with a hope and in- 
spiration like the declaration announced in the sermon on 
the mount by the son of Nazareth. 

It costs all this to attain, establish and retain our 
country, and during the first century of our country's 
history we have successfully passed through the wars of 1812, 
184G, and the bloodiest war in the history of the world the 
rebellion of 1S61, and yet another war in 1898, and still we 
are a united and happy people, the United States of America, 
first in war, first in peace, first in the enlightenment of the 
human race, guided and protected by the Star Spangled 
Banner and its stripes of purity and light, stimulating 
our every hope, now and for the future welfare and pros- 
perity of the coming generations of our land. 

History of nations of the past, like the career of individ- 
uals, we observe often attain their desired end, but do not 
retain and hold that which they attain, and the reasons of 
their downfall with nations like individuals, upon exami- 
nation, are often apparent. This is ever the living question 
with the people of this country. Do we realize our indi- 
vidual and collective responsibility to our country ? Do 
we realize our obligations to the past and recognize our 
duty, as citizens, to the future generations of our country ? 

What does our vote as citizens mean ? Why, that we are 
individual members of a great association — our Country, 
our Nation, our Rei)ublic. What shall we do, as citizens, 
with our vote ? How will we cast it? For whom shall we 
cast it ? I ask as a single member, holder of one vote, for 
the benefit of the association of my country, the land of my 
birth, my nation, the United States of America. 

Why, who is the man, and what is the man, who is se- 
lected for election to the legislature to take })art in making 



9 

the laws of my town, my county, my city, my State, my 
country? What is his character? What does he represent? 
Is he free to act and do his duty, under the law, consciously 
to the town, county, cit}''. State and country? These are the 
questions that every citizen, every voter, has a right, and it 
is his duty to inquire and ascertain. If any voter does less, he 
fails in his duty and responsibility as a citizen and in help- 
ing to promote and make good citizenship. Let the voters, 
the citizens of every community over our country, insist 
upon the right, justice and honor in every instance in which 
they have a voice, both in public and private affairs, and 
we will to the end of time enjoy the great exponents of our 
constitution under the law, — life and liberty and the pro- 
tection of property. 

Educate the children of our country in everything that 
tends to develop their character, their love of justice and 
mercy, their sense of honor, their regard for integrity, their 
sense of duty to others and to appreciate the necessity for 
law among men, being manifest for the existence of every- 
thing known to men from the beginning of time. We will 
then have progress in our citizenship and forever avoid 
degeneracy of our people, as the history of the downfallen 
nations of the past ages so sadly record. The future citizen 
of America will then appreciate his vote and feel a sense of 
responsibility and use it properly. 

Educate the girls in every particular with the boys — the 
future mothers of our voters and likely some day, not far 
distant, among our voters. In every sense, however, whether 
they be voters, direct or not, their influence in every com- 
munity is unfathomed, and every self-respecting man wants 
to honor and respect them, care for and protect them. 

Educate our citizens with the purpose in view that they 
may get understanding. For of all things, the proper under- 
standing is the thing most needed for good citizenship. 
Teach them to observe carefully what exists and is going on 
in the community around them, and study and carefully note 
wherein improvements may be safely made, not selfishly, 
but for the good of all, and followed by wise meditation and 



10 

reflection, and good citizenship will be the frnit of such 
education and unwise innovation will be avoided, and the 
good in things and men that exist will be retained and cor- 
rectly estimated and appreciated and men and things that are 
praiseworthy will be praised, and that which is blameworthy 
will be blamed and eradicated. By this means the peoi)le 
will learn to think! think ! think ! and correctl}^ learn and 
know what their vote means, their individual responsibility 
to their country and its proper use personally and col- 
lectively, and the representatives of the people will ever be 
of a high order in every community throughout our country, 
and we will always enjoy the wisdom of the good laws that 
will be enacted for the common good of all, by representa- 
tives of the people, so trained and educated. We want 
knowledge linked w'ith proper development and under- 
standing for ready use, and application of it for the common 
good. 

Dignify labor of all kind and the laborer will be a digni- 
fied and self-res})ecting and respected and worthy citizen in 
every community, thus adding to the economy, comfort, 
convenience, happiness of human life, and competition will 
then mean progress for the common good of the human 
race. Physical and mental activity of man begets happi- 
ness because it is the natural law of his being, alike every- 
thinsf that exists or ever had existence. We must ever do 
something to produce a desired end, or put in operation the 
pro}»er working of the law, and we obtain a result. We 
must know what to, do and how to do it, if we are to know 
in advance what the result will be. Here is where knowl- 
edge is valuable to produce or to avoid the working of the 
law. Knowledge and experience in its application pro- 
duces perfection, and perfection is the end of the law. 

Our system of government so far in the history of the 
human race is the best known to man for the individual 
happiness and his protection. We learn from the history 
of the downfallen nations of the i)ast the necessity of keep- 
ing the character of the peoi)le, our power, pure, upright, 
just and honorable toward one another, if we hope to con- 



11 

tinue and progress as a nation, now, and be one people un- 
der our system of government. Let the people ever value 
their votes. 

All government over the universe, of what we call mat- 
ter and mind, is by the majority of the best authorities, 
said to be of divine ordination and the act of the people, 
through the power of God, made manifest through them, 
constitutes the form of our government — we call the Con- 
stitution. Beside the constitutions of the several States, 
there is also tiie Constitution of the United States, with para- 
mount authority over the people of all the States. By 
that Constitution certain specified powers are delegated to a 
general or federal government — all powers not delegated 
being reserved to the States or to the people. The special 
powers thus delegated are principally such as concern the 
foreign relations of our country, the rights of war and peace, 
the regulations of foreign and domestic commerce, and 
other objects most appropriately assigned to the general 
government. The government invested with the exercise 
of these powers is distributed into legislative, executive and 
judicial deparlments. The legislative is divided into two 
branches — a Senate, composed of two members from each 
State, elected by the legislature thereof and a House, com- 
posed of representatives from each State in proportion to 
to their respective numbers. The voters in each State are 
such persons as by the constitution thereof are the electors 
of the most numerous branch of the State legislature. The 
executive power is vested in a President, who is chosen by 
electors chosen in each State as its legislature may precribe 
— each State being entitled to as many electors as it has 
Senators and Representatives. He has a qualified veto 
upon the acts of tiie legislature. The judicial power is 
vested in a Supreme Court and such inferior courts as may 
be established by law — the judges receiving their appoint- 
ments from the President by and with the advice and con- 
sent of the Senate, and holding their office by the tenure of 
good behavior. 

The Republican convention, convened in (he city of Chi- 
cago on the 21st day of June, 1904, upheld the record of 



I of G 



J2 

the great State of Illinois and that of its great city in know- 
ing what work it ought to do, in knowing how it ought to 
be done, and the convention of assembled members of the 
party of America, in the interest of each and every Ameri- 
can, accomi)lished its great work and upheld the history of 
the great Republican party and nominated as the candidate 
of the Republican party Theodore Roosevelt for our Presi- 
dent, and it is self-evident from the record of his adminis- 
tration of the laws of our country and his wdiole official life 
that he knows how to do his great work as our President, 
and he will continue, in the interest of our country after his 
election in November, 1904, to do the work of his great 
office as our President. 

The address made by the great Chairman of that Con- 
vention, Elihu Root, son and citizen of the great State of 
New York and also ex-Secretary of War, like the great 
lawyer he is, and the great character in delineating the his- 
tory of the Republican part}^ and its candidates, based his 
great argument only on the facts, well known to the people 
of our country, and the voters of our country in an unpre- 
cedented majority will continue in power the Republican 
party and its candidate, as the trustees of their great rights 
secured to them under their Federal constitution, from which 
the respective State constitutions are made and protected by 
the judicial power under the Federal constitution for the 
people of our whole country. 

Whatever the difference there may exist on diffi:rent ques- 
tions between the North, South, East and West of our coun- 
try, the people of our whole country, in large majorit}^ will 
declare by their votes on the 8th day of November, 1904, 
for the candidates and the party whose record and the record 
of his party in the [)ast, now, and for the future, represent the 
best interest for the continued prosperity and progressive spirit 
of the American Republic, the United States, now and forever, 
under the Star Spangled Banner. The Republican party has 
nominated its candidates and only ask and appeal to the 
American people, in the name of our country, for the good 
of each and all, for an examination of its record in the past, 



and the record of its candidates and the administration of the 
RepubHcan party of our country by our beloved and departed 
friend and President, WilUam McKinley, and since his sad 
death, by our brave and courageous American, our present 
Chief Executive, and now the candidate of the RepubHcan 
party. AVhat has he done during his administration of the 
laws of his country ? Why, his record and the record of 
his administration is an open book, and its examination can 
only increase the patriotism and pride of every American 
citizen for his American spirit and American methods in 
executing our laws for the prosperity and general welfare of 
our country, under his administration of our laws by his 
great executive ability and the influence of his great moral 
character. With a like political activity that he displayed 
as the Governor of the State of New York, and with the 
same honesty, justice and great executive ability in all the 
public offices that he lias so ably filled with honor and 
prosperity for the welfare of the people, these qualities he 
brought and has unceasingly used, as our Chief Executive, 
for the good of our nation and the individual happiness and 
progress of our people. He created great reforms as Gov- 
ernor of New York State and his administration of the State 
was a great success, and together with his projects won the 
approval and adoption of the i)eople of his State, and as the 
Chief Executive of our nation he has accomplished great 
things for the good of our people, and will continue to do so 
now and after his election. His enforcement through his 
Attorney-General of the Department of Justice of our laws 
against trusts, breaking the deadlock in the anthracite 
coal strike, well known to the people of our country, who so 
greatly benefitted by his great moral character, ex- 
erted in this matter as well as all other mat- 
ters of a like nature, as the trustee of the American 
people, in the execution of his trust, for his 
beneficiaries, the American people, the working people, 
the farmer, the business interest of the whole people, the 
professional people, the business man of every calling in the 
interest of the people, in every section of our great country, 



14 

and to-day he is ready, willing and able to continue his 
great trust in the interest of each and every citizen of our 
nation, and asks the approval of his fellow citizens, and 
the}^ will respond like true Americans with true American 
spirit at the polls and elect him by an unprecedented ma- 
jority, by the popular vote of our country and by the elec- 
toral vote for our President. He has employed arbitration 
for the settlement of the differences between capital and labor, 
in the interest of his country's welfare and prosperity, for 
both the laborer and the capitalist. Let the business inter- 
est of the whole country take note of the business manner 
of the organization of the Republican Convention, which 
convened in Chicago on June 21, 1904, and the business 
despatch and facility of matters before that Convention, how 
its great and able leaders acted and what they had to say, 
based on facts, about the record of their party and their 
candidates, — an open book for the study of the people of 
our country, that they may righteously decide how they 
shall and will cast their votes, in the interest of our country, 
for the continued welfare and prosperity of the people of 
our nation. 

Our President, Theodore Roosevelt, the candidate of the 
Republican party for election to continue as our President, 
does things with the light of a sovereign intelligence and 
vast knowledge. He has a master mind, and more than 
that, he is a master character, sparkling gems in his devel- 
oped physique worthy the name — the temple of his God and 
tiie spirit of God dwelleth in him. He is a great American 
and a maker of political history of America worthy of a 
great American. His admirable equalities — honesty, sincer- 
ity and frankness, invincible vigor, master mind and master 
character — make him an ideal American spirit. The hearts 
of all true Americans are with him and by an unprece- 
dented majority of votes will select him again to be the 
Commander-in-Chief of our Army and Navy with confidence 
that he will preserve the peace and steady progress of our 
country, ever ready as our great ca[)tain to defend our 
honor and integrity always and everywhere. 

GEORGE W. DREW. 




GEORGE W. DREW. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 980 311 5 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 980 311 5 # 



